The TinAlley String Quartet toiled away for four years trying to perfect their sound, and with one musician change and millions of sweat droplets later, it paid off.

According to Justin Williams of the TinAlley String Quartet, the foursome came together a little over four years ago at Melbourne University while members of the Melbourne University Chamber Orchestra.

The quartet from Australia has won several awards, played for international audiences and will grace the doorstep of SF State for a performance in McKenna Theatre on Sunday, March 13 at 3 p.m.

“Our engagement here is actually our first performance of our first tour of North America,” Williams said. William’s quartet mates include Kristian Winther, Lerida Delbridge and Michelle Wood.

For this performance they will play three compositions, including “Berg String Quartet Opus 3,” which is a favorite of theirs, Williams said. It’s very romantic, he added.

They will also play “Haydn String Quartet Opus 76 No. 5” and “Mendelssohn String Quartet in A minor, Opus 13.”

The classical string quartet regularly plays music from the late renaissance to the present, Williams said. He described the type of chamber music they play as some of the most amazing music ever written.

“It would seem that most composers...from the classical period on had enormous respect for this genre,” Williams said.

TinAlley’s North American Tour is one leg of a three part tour that includes Germany and the Netherlands, Williams said. The tour was a part of the prize for winning the Banff International String Quartet Competition at the Banff Centre in Canada, according to Williams. The Banff Centre is a globally respected arts, cultural, and educational institution and conference facility, according to the centre’s Web site.

“Winning the Banff International String Quartet Competition has given us the unique opportunity of developing a career in what has become an extremely competitive industry to breach,” Williams said.

Prior to this competition TinAlley had won two other competitions — the Chamber Music Competition at University of Melbourne and the Australian Chamber Music Competition.

TinAlley String Quartet’s appearance at the university is also a part of the Morrison Artists Series — a series of concerts that occur at SF State each semester as part of the Morrison Chamber Music Center, according to Saul Gropman, the programs director and former head of the classical guitar program at SF State. Gropman retired last year after 20 years in the music department.

The Morrison Chamber Music Center has been coaching young chamber musicians at SF State since 1952, according to its Web site, and is supported by funds from the estate of May Treat Morrison, one of SF State’s first female students in the music department.

This is the second concert in the concert series this semester. The Formosa String Quartet, winners of the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition, performed on Feb. 17, Gropman said.

“The final concert features East Coast Chamber Orchestra — a conductor-less string orchestra of 17 members,” Gropman said. That concert is scheduled for April 20.

Gropman said he expects a good turnout for the TinAlley String Quartet concert, as is usually the case for all Morrison Series shows. Usually about 500 of the 700 seats fill up, according to Gropman.

Students on campus are showing interest in the concert as well.

“I’d be interested in going. That sounds cool,” said SF State student Amy Farroh upon hearing of the appearance of the award-winning Australian quartet.

Admission is free for all Morrison Series performances. For more information contact the school of music and dance at SF State at (415) 338-1431, or Saul Gropman at (415) 338-1358 or by e-mail at sgropman@sfsu.edu.